Auditor's report won't end Columbus schools scandal

Sunday

Nov 24, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 24, 2013 at 3:33 PM

The state investigation into student-data fraud in Columbus schools appears to be nearly complete. The state auditor said a draft report of the findings will be on his desk by the first week of December.

Jennifer Smith Richards, The Columbus Dispatch

The state investigation into student-data fraud in Columbus schools appears to be nearly complete. The state auditor said a draft report of the findings will be on his desk by the first week of December.

That doesn’t mean it’s all over, nor that the report will be declared final and released right away, said Carrie Bartunek, State Auditor Dave Yost’s spokeswoman. But it is an indication that the 17 months of on-the-ground work are winding down for the team of investigators and auditors who analyzed computer records, interviewed teachers and served search warrants for student records at high schools.

Meanwhile, a federal prosecutor in Columbus is examining evidence from the state investigation and a separate probe by the FBI, weighing whether there’s enough to pursue criminal charges, said Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Columbus. He said he can’t comment specifically about the investigation or whether indictments are likely.

After promising swift action this past summer against employees who manipulated student data, Columbus City Schools officials have reversed course and again decided to wait for the state and federal findings. That means that only three employees who were found to have played key roles in the data scandal have been forced out since The Dispatch first reported in June 2012 that Columbus employees had been tampering with student data.

In addition, then-Superintendent Gene Harris retired in June, saying her departure had nothing to do with the data scandal. Three other administrators who made student-data changes left of their own accord over the summer or this fall.

But the district’s internal auditor referred as many as 30 employees for possible discipline after her investigation ended last December. The district’s computer files show that hundreds of district employees made significant changes in student data.

In a letter responding to questions from The Dispatch, interim Superintendent Dan Good acknowledged that what he described as “a small number” of administrators identified by the internal auditor still work in the district.

“Please be assured that, while there may be the perception that our interest in pursuing employment action has waned, we continue to vigorously pursue this issue,” Good wrote.

The district must “avoid embroiling the district in unnecessary and potentially very expensive personnel-related litigation,” Good wrote.

It makes more sense to wait until evidence from the investigations is presented, he wrote, rather than move ahead and risk being sued. The Ohio Department of Education also is waiting until the investigations are done until it takes action against the educator licenses of those involved.

The state auditor has been examining student-data fraud in the district since July 2012. Some Columbus employees withdrew students without their knowledge, presumably so their poor test scores wouldn’t count; deleted kids’ absences; and changed student grades without explanation. The FBI began investigating last October.

Good said in the letter that, in most or all of the cases in which secretaries changed data, they were directed to do so by a school principal or assistant principal. They will not be disciplined unless there is evidence that they acted on their own or clearly understood that making the changes was wrong. That’s the first time the district has made a public statement about which group of employees would be held accountable.

Teachers haven’t been implicated in wrongdoing.

Some top-level administrators were implicated early on. Steve Tankovich, the district’s former data czar who has been accused of orchestrating the data manipulation, resigned eight months ago. He has not spoken publicly about his involvement.

Michael Dodds, who oversaw several schools and their principals, retired in January, saying he was being made a scapegoat but hadn’t done anything wrong. And Stanley K. Pyle, an assistant principal who changed hundreds of student grades in a single school year, retired at the end of last school year. He also has not spoken publicly.

The district has said it asked those three administrators to leave. Officials have said other administrators who have left did so without district intervention.

The question of whether wrongdoers remained in the district was a central issue in the November election in which the district sought voter approval of a 9.01-mill combined levy/bond issue. It was overwhelmingly voted down.

Some of the most-prominent voices in the anti-levy movement say voters were turned off by the district’s apparent inaction against those responsible for data tampering.

Jonathan Beard’s anti-levy group — No Cheaters, No Charters — urged Columbus residents to vote against the November levy in part because many of the implicated employees remain in the district.

“I’ve never seen people so angry and offended as I’ve seen with this incident,” he said. “They’r e acting like we’re stupid, like we’re children that haven’t formed opinions based on facts.”

jsmithrichards@dispatch.com

@jsmithrichards

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